Session Title
Ethics of Design – A Discussion
Presenter
Brad Nunnally, MiTek Industries
Session Type: Discussion
The exploration of ethics has always been one rooted in discussion and discourse. An important aspect of design is the ethical implications that result from it. For too long has the ethics of design been left to philosophers and academics. At Interaction10, I want to explore the ethics of design by holding various discussions around a few ethical thought experiments. Each thought experiment would explore whether a particular design decision was ethically right, or wrong. The discussion for each experiment will be time boxed to allow the group to explore various situations and contexts. The outcome of the conversation will lead to an ethical framework which designers may use to critique their work from a more philosophical view point.
Ethical Thought Experiments
1. The Nature of Defaults – Default settings can be either your best friend, or your worst enemy. So many of us are plagued with newsletters and advertisements because we forgot to un-check that little box. Where is the line that separates a good default from a bad one?
2. Transfer of Control – People give each other permission to ‘use’ them everyday. Online it’s even more pervasive by having to sign up for so many things just to use them. Is the concept of control as simple as signing up, or should there be an extra step involved?
3. Collection of Personal Information – The importance of personal information is not what it used to be. We are constantly giving away our names, addresses, and phone numbers to people we have never met. What type of personal information is really important know and what should we do with it?
4. Use of User Research – User research allows us to collect a lot of very personal and private information about a group of people. Generally, this data is kept under lock a key for a predefined time. But, what should we do with it once that time has passed?
5. Implications of Ambiguous Computing – The Dawn of the Cyborg is coming. Some say it might already be here. What implications does this have on our sense of privacy and self?
Biography
Brad has been practicing User Experience for over 3 years. During that time he has worked mainly with the financial and health care management industries. Currently, he is the Usability Architect at Mitek Industries. There he leads up the User Experience Design for an international business management application for the home construction industry. In St. Louis, Brad helped start, and now heads up, the local IxDA Group. The group’s goal is to be a local advocate for User Experience and give local professionals a peer group in order to share their ideas.
2 Comments
Though I haven’t written about it much, this subject is near and dear to me. However, I think about it mostly from the perspective of the ethics of doing the work of design, not the ethics of design decisions. So my feedback is around that. Given that we may decide that some design decisions are unethical, then what? Do and how do we enforce, individually and/or as a community, the ethics of design practice? For example, how would we identify and prevent getting caught up in questionable or objectionable design efforts even before we confront individual potentially unethical design choices? I would like to see those questions addressed in a session such as this.
This is a nice approach. May want to reassure committee how you’ll manage the time, and point out take-aways or outcomes you aim to have. Also, you and Kaleem may want to discuss teaming up, to avoid these cancelling each other out somehow?